So many stories about transplants really tug at your heart, but ones that include children and babies can be incredibly poignant. When I put out an appeal to speak to people about organ transplants, I was contacted by Ed Weir. He told me his story of their 1-month-old daughter, Rachel. Rachel died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) 22 years ago. Most often when a child dies of SIDS, the child is discovered too late for their organs to be used in transplantation. In this case, Rachel’s death was discovered immediately. And because of that, many other children were saved …read more

This is a really interesting study. It has been thought that the heart should be stopped for 5 minutes following a cardiac death in an infant heart before harvesting for organ donation- that has been since 1997. It is now being said that only one minute is needed, as the heart is irreversibly dead after 6o seconds.
Shortening the interval reduces the time that transplantable organs are deprived of oxygen, which likely increases the success of transplants. It may also help to increase the number of available organs for donations. This is important because as many as one in four babies …read more